


Gold From Another Land

by thelittlestbird



Category: Game of Thrones (TV), Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:21:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26076346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelittlestbird/pseuds/thelittlestbird
Summary: When Red Riding Hood needs to fight off some of the Evil Queen's monsters, she has to go much farther away than the Enchanted Forest to find the help that she needs.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7
Collections: Crossworks 2020





	Gold From Another Land

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Corina (CorinaLannister)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CorinaLannister/gifts).



Heart thumping and feet pounding, Red ran for her life through the forest. 

She had a good lead, but she could hear the monsters behind her, growing closer with every one of their shambling steps. She could smell them, too: the whiff of deathly rot that always floated around them. The monsters weren’t going to get tired the way she would, and they wouldn’t have to stop for food or sleep, either. They were already dead.

She knew that her bright red cloak was like a beacon to them, drawing them after her, but she didn’t care: she’d rather they were chasing her than Granny or any of the other defenseless people in the village. _Just a few more miles,_ she thought. _Then I’ll be at the river, and I can lure them in…_

And then the next wave would come, and the next. She couldn’t outrun them forever. Not to mention that the thought of running _just a few more miles_ right now made her want to fall down and cry – it wasn’t the full moon, and she was stuck running on two legs instead of four. 

None of this was actually going to fix the problem. There had to be another way.

Red didn’t notice the rickety little shop until she was almost on top of it. Had it kept itself hidden from her keen senses, somehow? Or maybe it hadn’t existed until that moment: why would it be here, out in the middle of the forest, with no other shops or houses around it? As soon as she saw the sign over the door, she knew that either possibility was equally likely – and for the same reason, she knew that it probably had what she needed.

She pushed through the door and slammed it behind her, collapsing against it in the same desperate motion, gasping for breath.

Inside, the shop was dim and narrow, with shelves crowded together at odd angles and towering so high that they shouldn’t have been able to stand up on their own, let alone contain the overflowing jumble of objects that packed every one. Lamps hung from the ceiling at irregular intervals, casting long wavering shadows over everything as they swung, set into erratic motion by the force of the door slamming. Nothing looked like it fit; nothing looked like it should. Even worse, nothing _smelled_ like it should. Its scent should have been dry dust or sharp herbs or mellow wood – instead, there was just emptiness, with a spark of magic somewhere far far away.

“Good afternoon, dearie,” creaked an all-too-familiar voice. “You look like you could use some help.” Rumplestiltskin’s face emerged from the shadows, grinning that pointed grin into one of the shaky circles of light. “You’ve come to the right place.”

“The monsters,” Red panted.

“Ye-e-e-e-s?” He drew out the word as if he were unrolling a spool of thread. “What about them?” He tittered. “Or, I should say, what about which monsters? There are such a lot of them in the Enchanted Forest these days.” Red couldn’t tell if he thought that was a good thing or not. Dust swirled up around Rumplestiltskin as he stepped all the way into the pool of light. “You’re going to have to be more specific, dearie.”

Still pressed back against the door, Red fought her way towards a steadier breath. “The walking dead. The ones that the Evil Queen used to destroy Barrowvale. They’re on their way to my village.”

“Oh my. Has she really started to use those kinds of creatures?” He clucked his tongue. “Oh my my my my my. I didn’t know that she could do that.”

“Well, she can! I need something I can use to fight them off.”

“Why _you,_ dearie? And why do you need my help?” He gave a sniff that reminded Red of her own. “Can’t you just magic yourself into a wolf and turn them all into kibble?”

“It doesn’t work that way!” Red cried. He probably knew it, too, judging from the smug look on his face – she’d taken the bait he’d thrown out. But there was a real question in there, and she answered it: “I have to do it because nobody else can. My village is full of innocent people – old people and children and defenseless farmers. If there’s something I can do to help them, then I have to try.” 

More than that, though, she had to try to make up for the harm she’d done before she knew she was a wolf, before she could control what she was and what she could do. She needed to save people.

“Well, weapons don’t work on these creatures, dearie.” Rumplestiltskin’s cracked voice broke into her thoughts. “Surely you’ve seen that. Someone in your little village must have tried to shoot one with an arrow or poke it with a stick. You need something else.” He ticked off each ingredient on a crooked finger. “Gold from another land; leaves from the last fall before the long winter. An earthen cauldron to mix them in, and the proper spell to speak over them. That will create a light so bright that it will crumble them all to dust.”

Red’s heart leaped with sudden hope. “Yes! I’ll take it!”

“Oh my my my, no, I don’t have that. But I do have something that can send you to where you can find those things.”

“Then I’ll take that!” Red could hear the note of desperation in her own voice. “Please!”

“Everything comes with a price, dearie,” he tittered, twirling his hand in the air.

“Yes, I know how shops work,” Red snapped back.

Suddenly his voice was in her ear, right behind her, and every word had sharp teeth. “Don’t toy with me, dearie. I have something you want. I have something you need. And I don’t have to sell it to you. I can just…leave.” He leaned closer. “And where would you and your little village be then, hmmmm?”

Red swallowed. “All right. What’s the price?”

She could almost hear his grin returning. “I have a special kind of locator spell. You think of something that you need, and it takes you right to it. Which, in your case, is another land. But wherever it takes you might be even worse than where you are now. In fact, it’s almost certainly worse.” He tittered again. “Oh, and I’ll throw in the reversal spell at no extra charge. Because I’m generous, and because you probably do want to come home, don’t you?” 

Red didn’t have time to think. “I’ll take it. Right now, there isn’t anything worse than those monsters.” 

“Oh, you think so!” He shook his head and tittered again. “I’ll remember that you said that, dearie! You’ll remember, too, when you see what else is out there in all the other lands, and we’ll see if you still think that those monsters are the worst things possible. Now, here is what you must do.” He sprang back, flourishing one long-fingernailed hand into the middle of the air as if he were dropping something – and in that same moment, Red felt a small weight in her hand. She opened her palm to see two tiny spheres, one green and one blue, both shimmering with an inner light and traced around with an elaborate network of lines like a map – or like a locator spell. “Toss the blue sphere in the air.” Rumpelstiltskin’s voice was suddenly clear and crisp, with none of the giddy laughter in it, “and think of what you need. When it lands, you will be in a place where you will find it. Then, when you are ready to return, toss the green sphere into the air and think of your home, and it will bring you back.”

“Toss the blue one, think of what I need,” Red repeated, “get it, toss the green one, and come back.”

“That’s it. Now, do it.”

“What, right here?”

“How else will I know that you’re the one that used it, dearie?” He leaned in closer, showing sharp teeth as he said, “And when you come back…you will owe me a favor. Although you may pay another price when you’re in that other land. I think I know where this is going to take you, and there might be worse monsters there.”

Red swallowed hard. “I need to do this,” she told herself. She wished her voice didn’t shake so much when she did. 

“So think of what you need,” Rumplestiltskin prompted. “And then throw it.”

_I need the things that will help me stop the walking dead,_ Red thought, closing her eyes – and then stopped herself. She needed to be specific. _I need gold from another land, and dust from the last autumn leaves before the long winter_. She curled her hand around the blue sphere, feeling the tiny shifting ridges of its map lines, and added one more line to her wish: _I need someone who can help me. Someone who will understand me._

Then she threw it into the air.

In the same instant, a blue whirlwind rose up around her, swirling and churning like the ocean, shot through with deeper blue lines, as if she were inside the sphere and watching it spin all at the same time.

When the blue torrent fell away, everything was silent and gray. The air was heavy around her. Leafless trees stood out in twisted black outlines against a sky clouded and dull with unshed rain. In the distance, there was something that might once have been a farm, but its once-neat rows of crops were nothing but twisted broken stems trampled flat, and the farmhouse door dangled crookedly from one broken hinge.

_This_ was the place that held what the spell thought she needed? 

Red shivered as a chill wind rushed past her. She lifted her head, nostrils flaring as she sniffed it. She scented fallen leaves – good, so she could have that, at least, as long as it was still autumn here – and leather, and metal, and several people, and…another wolf? She sniffed again. No, not a wolf; not even a werewolf; a person. But a person with a bit of a wolf scent about them. And…oh, the moon was full here. Now, everything was gray in the cloudy late afternoon gloom, but she knew that when the moon rose, it would be full.

As if she were untangling a knot from Granny’s knitting, she carefully picked one scent out of the jumble: the person who smelled like a wolf. If they had that in common, then maybe this person could help her? Plus, it was just the most interesting to Red. She started to track towards the scent, slowly at first and then with quicker and more confident steps. The trail carried her through the blighted landscape, over dead dry grass and weed-choked fields, across a footpath whose edges were ragged and overgrown. 

She wasn’t cold, but she shivered anyway, as she scooped up handful after handful of dusty leaves to crumble into her pockets. This place felt emptier and more grim than any village that the Evil Queen’s troops had burned. It wasn’t just a single act of destruction; it could only have happened through years of neglect and violence. Only the scent of the wolf-person had any kind of warmth to it. Red held tight to that, and followed it towards its source.

As she grew closer, sounds started to filter in among the smells: the clash of blades to go with the scent of metal; snarling voices. Uh-oh. A fight.

Red ducked behind a tree – too far for most people to see or hear what was going on, but close enough for her – and crouched down, peering cautiously around the trunk towards the sounds.

The wolf-scent was a girl, maybe a few years younger than Red and more than a few inches shorter, slender and lithe and dressed in leathers, with shaggy brown hair that she’d probably cut herself and wary wide-set eyes. She was surrounded by six men: all scruffy and filthy and unshaven, wielding an equally scruffy collection of weapons. Bandits, Red realized with a resigned sigh. No matter what land she was in, there were always bandits. They were almost always bullies, too. Six on one!

With a swish of metal that probably only she and Red could hear, the girl drew a sword as slender as she was. One of the bandits snickered at it.

And then stopped, because the sword was in his shoulder.

The other bandits charged, letting out ragged roars, but the girl had already dodged out of the way. She was impossibly fast, spinning in and out with a dancer’s grace as she thrust her sword at the bandits. Red was breathless just watching it. It only took a few seconds, though, for her to be able to tell that it wasn’t going to be enough: no matter how quickly the girl moved, there were just more of them, and they were always going to be able to use that to their advantage. 

Red could smell the girl’s fear flickering up as she realized what was going on, but there was no sign of it on her face: she wore the same intent expression that she had had since the beginning of the fight. No signs of giving up, either, not even when one of the bandits’ blades sliced through her leather sleeve. Despite everything, Red couldn’t help grinning – she admired that kind of courage.

And she knew what she had to do. Red crouched down, gathered herself inward, and changed.

Her hands and feet contracted into paws and shot out sharp claws, fur sprouted up in a protective cloud, pointed ears rose up to catch the harsh sounds of metal and boots and voices, muzzle stretched out to catch the long points of her teeth. She let out a howl to the sky, and heard the answering call of a dozen wolves from a dozen directions, and the part of her that still thought with Red’s mind smiled. She wasn’t alone here. She wouldn’t be alone anywhere, as long as there were wolves, and people like her.

Then she sprang.

Growling and snarling, she burst through the circle of bandits, knocking one to the ground under her weight and charging straight through to another, sinking her fangs deep into his shoulder. The other bandits flailed back in a jumble of confusion and curses – which left an opening for the girl with the sword. “Ha!” she shouted, spinning into the gap and lunging forward with her blade. One more bandit fell, spurting blood as the girl tugged her sword out of him, at the same time that Red crunched deeper into the one she’d bitten and flung him backwards. He landed headfirst and crumpled into a heap – he’d definitely get up again, but not for few hours at least. 

Two more down – only three left.

“Seven hells!” shouted the one that Red had knocked down first, as he clambered back up to his feet. “Is the wolf _helping_ her?” The girl with the sword was ready for him when he got there, striking another sharp precise blow with that narrow blade. Another bandit started to rush the girl’s back, but Red charged in between them, rearing up and trampling him down with all of the heavy weight of her enormous wolf form.

That left only one left standing.

He ran.

Red stood there panting, nostrils filled with the scent of blood and battle – and heart pounding with relief. She had fought, and she had _kept her own mind._ It wasn’t the first time she had done that, but this feeling of control in her wolf form was still new enough that it thrilled her every time she felt it.

When she lifted her shaggy head, she saw the girl with the sword staring at her. “Hello,” the girl said, utterly calm and unafraid. “Thank you for helping me.”

Red nudged her nose against the girl’s hand, then paced back away from the fallen bandits towards that tree where she’d hidden herself before. The girl followed – Red could smell the curiosity on her, and a little flare of that wolf-scent, too. 

As soon as she was next to the shelter of the tree, Red curled in on herself to begin the transformation back. Her ears shrank, her muzzle drew in, her thick fur faded away to leave her shivering in her soft human skin and thin dress. She smiled, feeling the strange bluntness of her teeth around her nimbler human tongue. “You’re welcome. I’m Red.” As she unfolded to stand on her two feet, she realized how much taller she was than the other girl.

The other girl sprang back. “You’re a _person._ ” Red could almost see the wheels spinning in the girl’s mind as she tried to put that together. “You’re a wolf and you’re a _person._ ” That didn’t stop her from staring Red down with almost as much wariness as she had shown to the bandits. “Why did you help me?” Her hand hovered near the hilt of her slender sword, and her weight shifted forward on her toes, ready to spring into action again.

That was the question that the girl asked first? Not ‘what are you?’ or ‘how did you do that?’ Red stood back, holding her hands up to show that she didn’t have any weapons, and answered: “Because you needed it.”

The girl snorted. “That can’t be why. People don’t just help.” She said it with such certainty that Red’s heart hurt a little. Could she really not believe that someone could just help another person in need? The other girl’s eyes narrowed, and her chin lifted in another challenge. “Who do you serve?”

“Who do I serve?” Red repeated. “Not the Evil Queen, if that’s what you mean!”

“Ha!” The girl let out a short sharp laugh, and her eyebrows arched up: she was impressed, although Red couldn’t imagine why. The reason came quickly, though. “You actually _call_ her that?”

“Well, yes,” Red began. “She calls herself that…” Then she trailed off as the realization crept in. _Gold from another land._ “Wait. You don’t mean the same queen, do you? I really am in another land.” 

Even though everything was dull and gray and chilly, Red couldn’t help feeling a bit of wonder as she looked around her: yes, there were gloomy dead leaves on the ground, but they were gloomy dead leaves _from another land._

“You’re in _Westeros_ ,” the girl said, as scornfully as if she’d had to remind Red of something as obvious as “the sky is blue.” Even transforming from a wolf back into a person hadn’t made her look at Red with as much suspicion as she was doing now. “How could you not know where you are? Did you forget everything when you turned into a wolf?”

“No!” Red cried, flinching away from the thought. That didn’t happen to her anymore! She didn’t lose herself; she didn’t black out; she didn’t hurt people without knowing it! 

That wasn’t what the girl meant, though – and when Red had fought back those memories of waking up to blood far enough to be able to think about anything else, she saw the other girl’s eyes starting to shade towards sympathy, and her small hand gradually lowering away from her sword. Something in that fear must have gotten through to her.

Red drew a long breath of the chilly misty air, wrapped her arms around herself, and tried again. “Look. I know this sounds strange. I don’t blame you if you don’t believe me. But I was brought here by magic, because I need help to defend my people from the Evil Queen’s monsters. The Evil Queen that rules my land,” she added. “But if there’s an evil queen here too, then you know how terrible that can be!” Red’s voice rose higher, her fervor rising with every word. “She hurts people just because she can – just because she’s stronger, and she wants to make everyone else feel small and weak. She’s made these monsters that look like the dead, and they’ve torn up farms and villages all over the Enchanted Forest. They’re going to destroy my village next, and I don’t know how many more after that, if I don’t stop them! There are some things here that can help me, and I need to find them! I don’t even know your name,” Red realized, even as her words kept spilling out over each other. “But you’re brave, and you’re a friend to wolves – I don’t know what that means in your land, but I know it means that we’ve got something in common, and the magic brought me to you, so I think you’re the kind of person who can help me. Please – if you can help, I’ll – I’ll do anything.” 

The last burst of Red’s urgent words died away, and the silence of the gloomy gray plain rolled back in, feeling even heavier than before. The other girl watched Red with her wide eyes and utterly still expression for a long, long moment, before she said, “All right. My name is…” She paused, giving Red another one of those long, measuring looks before deciding on, “Arya.” A faint ghost of a smile passed over her face, and she repeated, “My name is Arya.” 

It hadn’t been the kind of hesitation that went with making up a fake name – Red had heard that enough times to know what it sounded like. Arya was deciding whether it was worth the risk to tell Red the truth. Apparently, she had decided that it was. It tugged at Red’s heart a little to think of another person having to hide who she really was – having to hide so much of herself that she couldn’t even say her own name! But she understood that sometimes that was safer. 

“What do you need?” Arya asked.

Red’s breath rushed out in a huge sigh of relief. “Oh my gosh, _thank you._ ” She plunked down on the ground, not even caring how hard a seat it made.

Arya snorted. “I haven’t given you anything yet.” It was the same kind of sharp words she’d been throwing back at Red all along, but this time it wasn’t a challenge; it was something softer. Almost…a joke? She crossed her legs and folded smoothly down to sit across from Red, sweeping her sword back out of her way as easily and naturally as if it were a part of her body. “What do you need?” Arya repeated, fixing Red with that steady gaze.

“Gold from another land,” Red began, then interrupted herself to ask, “Do you use gold coins here? Or do you know of a place where I could get gold jewelry?” This didn’t look like the kind of land where gold would be easy to get, and if they had their own tyrant ruling them, then there were probably just as many people living in terrible poverty as there were in the Enchanted Forest, maybe more. “And dust from the last leaves of autumn before the long winter starts.” Red glanced around at the dull crumble of leaves scattered across the dry brownish grass. “It looks like you definitely have that here.” 

“Winter is coming.” Arya made it sound like a line of a poem; and even though it was a poem that Red didn’t know, she nodded, sensing that it was something that should be respected in this land. “And, yes, we use gold coins. I don’t have any, but…” She tilted her head, glancing back over towards the fallen bandits, and when she turned back to Red, she was grinning. “I bet _they_ do.”

For the first time, Red found herself grinning back. 

Red and Arya poked through all of the bandits’ pouches and pockets, taking from them everything that they had stolen: gold coins, yes, and also silver ones, and even a pair of tarnished silver spoons. Arya helped herself to a few of their daggers, too, slipping them up her sleeves and into her boots so quickly that Red almost wasn’t sure if she’d even seen her do it. “You only need one of the gold coins, right?” Arya confirmed, as they settled back down under the tree. “I think I’m going to take the rest. There was a farm a little ways to the south, where an old lady lived.” Arya couldn’t meet Red’s eyes, as if she were pretending to be more casual than she was, or even as if she were ashamed of what she was saying, even though what she said was, “I’m going to give the rest of the coins to her.”

“That’s a good idea,” Red prompted. She wasn’t sure what to say next, so she tried, “You should help people, if you can.”

Arya looked quickly up at Red. “Why did you help me?”

“Because you needed it,” Red said, just as she had before. The answer hadn’t changed: it was just the truth. “I could tell that you were a friend to wolves, and you needed help. I didn’t want payment or expect anything else in return. I’m glad that you could help me find what I need, but that isn’t why I fought off those bandits for you.”

Arya shook her head. “Do people just…do that, where you’re from?” Her voice suddenly seemed very small, and Red wondered again just how much younger Arya was than she was. 

“Do people not do it here?” Red tried to ask it gently, but the thought was so strange and terrible that some of her horror came out in her voice. “You don’t have heroes, or just…good people, who will give help when it’s needed?”

“Not many.” Arya said in that same tiny voice. “The ones who do usually end up getting hurt. Or worse.”

“Then who fights the monsters?”

“There aren’t any monsters here.” Arya looked up at Red with eyes gone blank, as if they were windows that had slammed shut. “Just people. That’s worse.”

Is that what Rumplestiltskin had meant when he talked about this place being worse, and having worse things than monsters? Monsters were mindless: the things that the Evil Queen had sent after Barrowvale looked like they had once been people but they couldn’t think; they didn’t have any intent to hurt people. The same went for the beasts that lived in the depths of the Enchanted Forest.

“I think I understand,” Red said slowly. “Monsters can’t tell right from wrong. But people can, so if they do wrong, it’s because they’re choosing to. You can choose not to.” 

Red had been a monster too, but as soon as she was able to choose for herself, she chose not to kill people. She was going to keep choosing it every full moon for as long as she could, and every day, too.

“Exactly. And when kings and queens choose not to, then all the people in their land who don’t have a choice get hurt.” Arya raised wide, unsettled eyes to Red. “What are you going to do about your Evil Queen?”

Red shook her head. “I don’t know what I can do. I’m not anyone special! I mean, my friend Snow might be able to do something about her, but – “

“You’re a wolf!” Arya cut her off. “That means that you’re strong. You can do things that no ordinary person can.” 

Something inside Red started to grow warmer. Nobody had ever looked at her with _admiration_ for being a werewolf before. Fear, sometimes; wonder; confusion. Kinship, when she’d found Quinn and her mother and their pack. But never the way Arya was looking at her: as if she were _special_ for being a werewolf. Was there something that she could do against the Evil Queen, something that only she could do?

“Do you want to come back with me?” Red offered suddenly. “You’re amazing with a sword! We could really use someone like you in the Enchanted Forest.”

Arya shook her head. “I need to stay here. You need to fight your Evil Queen, and I need to fight mine. I need to _take her down._ ” A sudden cold edge slid under Arya’s voice, sharp as steel, that sent a chill through Red. “There are things that I need to do that I don’t think I can learn about in your Enchanted Forest.”

“I…understand,” Red said, even though she wasn’t sure she really wanted to. “I couldn’t leave the Enchanted Forest for good.” That much, she could say, and she definitely meant. “I think I need to get back. I don’t know how much time I have left before I need to go fight those monsters. But…thank you. Good luck fighting your Evil Queen.”

“Good luck fighting,” Arya replied, with a fierce grin.

Red stood up, the gold coin heavy in her pocket and the scent of the crumbled leaves floating up around her. She had what she needed: gold from another land, the last autumn leaves before the long winter. And maybe she was going to be better at this fight than she had thought.

Red took the green sphere, tossed it in the air, and thought of home.

**Author's Note:**

> \- I really really hope that this is something that you like! Red Riding Hood wasn’t on your list of requested characters for Once Upon A Time, and this wasn’t one of your requested crosses, but once I started thinking that Red and Arya could find common ground in their affinity for wolves, I just couldn’t get that out of my head! It felt like a good setup for a Once Upon a Time episode: a character goes to a new land, finds a new friend, and learns about themself. And because you said you wanted zombies, I made them the macguffin that Red was running away from in order to get the plot going :)  
> \- In Once Upon A Time continuity, this is set shortly after ‘Child of the Moon’; in Game of Thrones continuity, this is set vaguely in the end of Season 4, when Arya is traveling alone.


End file.
